


The Turn of Eternity

by MorriganLungbarrowmas



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bad Wolf Rose Tyler, Episode: s01e13 The Parting of the Ways, F/M, Jealous Tenth Doctor, Meddling TARDIS, Multi, Protective Doctor (Doctor Who), Slow Build, Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler Fluff, Time Lord Rose Tyler
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-14 03:01:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29910441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MorriganLungbarrowmas/pseuds/MorriganLungbarrowmas
Summary: The Tardis meddled more during the incident on Game Station than anyone was aware. However, when another need to protect the Doctor arises, the changes become more pronounced to those who choose to look. When that change fully alters the way of life for the Stuff of Legends on the Tardis, will the Doctor embrace the choices and changes, or will he give in to his urge to run?
Relationships: Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler, The Doctor (Doctor Who)/Rose Tyler
Comments: 6
Kudos: 22





	The Turn of Eternity

**Author's Note:**

> I apologize about the slight rambling of this chapter. It is the first thing that I have posted in quite a while, and the first fiction for Doctor Who.

_“Have a fantastic life, Rose.”_

A young woman, barely more than a child, sat curled up next to the doors as the hologram of the Doctor, her best friend, and if she was honest with herself, the man she loved with all her heart, disappeared. He had sent her home, made good on a promise he made to her mother that if things ever got to be too dangerous that he would send her back to London in her own time. Rose Tyler could barely breathe as she realised that she was alone. After travelling more than a year with the Doctor, and several months with Jack Harkness, who joined after a stint with nanogenes during an air raid in World War II, she came to the startling conclusion that she was truly alone. Her family wouldn’t understand, they wouldn’t know how to deal with what she had become by growing up. Jackie Tyler and Mickey Smith made it no secret that they didn’t like her travelling and couldn’t wait for her to come home.

A knock on the doors of the Tardis pulled Rose out from her reverie and she brushed a fresh wave of tears off her cheeks to answer to whoever it was. All she wanted was to tell them to bugger off and leave her alone, but only a few people knew what the beautiful blue box was and who would be inside. As she opened the door and stepped out, the joy in Mickey’s face set another harsh sob off in Rose’s chest and she collapsed into his arms as she cried.

Not knowing what was wrong with Rose, he started directing her to the flat that her mother lived in, lightly pulling her along when she tried to turn back to the Tardis. Mickey Smith knew something happened, but he was just happy she was home and back in his arms. _Where she belongs_ , a soft, somewhat traitorous voice said, since it was clear that she was unhappy, but he couldn’t really bring himself to care.

* * *

Once the Tardis was alone, she scanned along the timelines to find a way back to her Thief, looking to make sure that this was not truly to be the end of her travels and life. Once upon a time, she would not have done this alone, but ever since the end of the War, she had to make corrections and account for a small handful of others trying to impose their will on a universe they saw as lacking keepers. A few of the timelines being tugged were remnants of her pilot’s past coming back to haunt him, would continue to haunt him, such as the Dalek Emperor that he was, is, will be facing off with. The Time War should have ended, but somehow this small splinter group survived. Another was another renegade Time Lord that should have been long since dead but wasn’t, coming back to haunt and taunt his old Academy friend, but that wasn’t something that she should tangle with just now, he would get what was coming to him eventually. 

There was another anomaly in the timelines in the somewhat distant future, a young woman who had her heart set on marrying the last of the Time Lords, no matter the consequences for the universe around her. From what the Web of Time showed, the girl would be taken from her parents and raised to kill the Doctor, and yet became infatuated with the idea of being tied intrinsically to a lonely man, the last of his kind. She saw the pain and loneliness that being with this young woman would bring, to both of them. Yes, the woman would learn how to pilot the Tardis, but she would never really try and connect with her, not like the young human who was so distraught about being sent away tried to connect and learn about her.

The Tardis followed the life of the woman of the future and realised that, should this path remain unchanged, the universe could, and still might, collapse in on itself. This would only be offset by her Thief’s sense of guilt and his thoughts of sacrifice, and it would hurt… it would hurt them both as they were ripped apart over and over again until a tiny hope for being remembered brings them back. No, she couldn’t let that be the main timeline. As she turned from that thread, her conscious snagged on another what may be, that centred around another girl who loved the Doctor enough to tell him “Forever,” and mean to give it to him.

There were a lot of people that had travelled with them who promised forever, and then would leave. The Tardis would see that they loved the travel, the thought they could be heroes, learning everything they could and then taking it to go on to a better life. None of them wanted to stay for the man who showed it all to them, until the young shop girl came around, did some investigating of her own and set herself directly on the path to be the best help to the Doctor. Even scared out of her mind, she swung on a chain to save his life, faced down some of her fears to stay by his side, yet refusing to follow blindly. She challenged him, mentally and emotionally, always asking questions and refusing to allow him much time to wallow, it was quite amusing for the ship to watch the pilot she had had for more than one thousand years (even if he tells you it’s only been seven hundred, humans aren’t the only ones to lie about their age) dance around the emotions he was developing for the twenty year old girl that loves them both. 

A single large thread stemmed from the current point in Rose Tyler’s timeline, the only choice that would be and the Tardis followed it from there to a small nexus point. The lines so tightly bound together that it was hard to see what choice would lead to what outcome. They all flowed outward and then back together into a single strand, so no matter what they would still lead to the same place. Carefully looking at them, the Tardis saw what the outcomes of the choices to come would be. One would be that the Doctor and Rose Tyler would still be together in the Tardis for a short while, there would be plenty of heartbreak and they would be separated during another fixed point. Another would be that the hurts got to be so much that Rose would feel that she had to walk away to save what was left of herself, this was a small thread, a very tiny what could be, but one to keep in mind all the same. Finally, there was a small thread that was tinged with gold, a tied timeline, this one saying that if she was forced to protect the Doctor once more after returning to save him now, she would change and be able to truly give him forever. The disturbing separation from the Master’s meddling was going to be difficult to contain, but still doable if Rose Tyler changed. It would be painful to her, but it was by far the best outcome the Web of Time showed.

Now, to go about making it happen.

* * *

When Rose stormed out of the chippy, furious and hurt at the callousness of her mother and friend, she expected to be followed. To think that they knew her feelings and have them so belittled, tossed aside as if they meant nothing hurt. Jackie should have understood, it really wasn’t all too different from when Pete Tyler died, nobody expected Jackie to immediately get up and move on with her life, yet she expected Rose to forget about the Doctor and about the life he showed her, the life that she loved. No, it wasn’t fair, and damned be the consequences of her temper getting the better of tonight, and for the foreseeable future.

Mickey sat down on the bench next to her and again tried convincing her that he was better for her than the Doctor ever could be, but Rose refused to listen to this argument again. It was the same every time she came home, “Stay and have a real life with me. We’ll get married, have a family, and live on the same Estate that we grew up all our lives in, never leave, spend all our time down at the pub, watch football on the telly and never change.” She didn’t want to hear it anymore. She was tired of everyone else thinking that they knew best what her life should be without asking. Her mother always did it, saying she would ruin her life when she dropped out of school and running off with Jimmy Stone when she was sixteen, to working at Henrick’s, saying the shop was giving her airs and graces, nothing was ever good enough. That’s not even counting her thoughts on Rose’s original life plan of getting really good grades so that she could go to university, that one nearly sent Jackie over the edge. She compared Rose to her father and said that for all his smarts, where’d it leave him. It hurt so much that her mother didn’t believe that she was meant for more than the Estates could give her, to know that she could be out there making a difference and be happy, truly happy, and her mother would still find fault with her. 

Mickey had her life planned out to his desires since they were children. Everyone around them said they would be together someday, and Micks did everything he could to see that through. It was part of why Jimmy Stone had such an appeal to her, he didn’t have a lifetime’s worth of plans for her, and she could make her own way in the world with him, or so she thought. It wasn’t until he had successfully reeled her in that she saw him for what he was, and by then it was too late and she was drowning. Jimmy getting arrested for hitting Rose outside a bar had been the rescue she had needed to get out, but by then she was a shell of herself. So Rose played the game, she dated Mickey, and they had fun, but she wasn’t really happy, content more like. She worked at Henrick’s so that could help her pay off the debt that Jimmy left her with, and she did most of what was asked of her by her mother. When the shop blew up, however, that’s when Rose felt like she was really living.

The Doctor was the best thing that could ever happen to Rose. He was the best because he showed her that she could be so much more than she ever felt she could be, more than she had ever dreamed. He was her best friend, her confidant, her partner in everything, and she loved him with everything that she was. He was also the worst thing to happen to her, however, as since he came into her life she felt estranged from the life she always knew. He brought her home a year late, and her mother had never forgiven them for it, nor had she forgiven him for the way they live, always in danger, always running. Rose loved her life, wouldn’t risk changing it for anything, but the fact that it distanced her from Jackie and Mickey, made it so that even if she did tell them things about her travels, they wouldn’t understand, or worse, wouldn’t care, it hurt. She had met some amazing people from all over the universe and all throughout time, and she couldn’t say anything about it for fear that she’d be sectioned. It stung, though, that the Doctor had forced her home, had tricked her into leaving him behind. At least he had a legitimate reason for making a decision for her, in a major life and death way, but it still didn’t ease the fear that had an iron grip on her heart at the thought of him dying.

As her body eased out of the hunch she folded herself into when Mickey started talking, a golden glow in the corner of her eyes caught her attention. When she turned to face it fully, the words _Bad Wolf_ stared her in the face. “It’s over here as well!”

“That’s been there for years. It’s just a phrase. It’s just words.” Mickey sounded exasperated, like he was talking to a child that kept asking questions. 

“I thought it was a warning. Maybe it’s the opposite. Maybe it’s a message. The same words written down now and two hundred thousand years in the future. It’s a link between me and the Doctor. Bad Wolf here, Bad Wolf there. Following us, or leading us, but always there somehow.” Her voice was soft, contemplative, trying to analyze something that had been following them for most of their travels. A name of a company, a store, something a young telepath said to her, the name of a Welsh power plant, so many times it had cropped up, all throughout history and the universe. It had to mean something, and the fact that it was written everywhere now, meant that she needed to figure it all out and fast.

“But if it’s a message, what’s it saying?”

“It’s telling me I can get back. The least I can do is help him escape.” With that, Rose started back to the Tardis. “The Doctor always said that the Tardis was telepathic. That she is alive, she can listen. She just needs to make a return trip, just reverse,” she explained as they approached the doors.

“Yeah, but we still can’t do it. I mean, it ain’t listening now.” He crossed his arms in front of his chest like a child not getting his way and stared down at Rose.

She, for the most part, ignored his attitude, hyper focused on what she was looking for. “We need to get inside her. Last time I saw you, with the Slitheen, this middle bit opened, and there was this light, and the Doctor said it was the heart of the Tardis. If we can open it, I can make contact. I can tell her what we need.” Hope started coloring her voice as she thought about what she could do. 

“Rose.”

“Hmm?”

“If you go back, you’re going to die.” 

Rose sighed and looked up at her oldest friend, knowing what she was about to say would break his heart, but she was too tired to care. “That’s a risk I’ve got to take, because there’s nothing left for me here.” She looked away from him, unable to stand the hurt that lingered in his eyes, but unwilling to lie to him.

“Nothing?” He didn’t want to believe that everything that he hoped for, he and Rose having a beautiful life together, was only his dream and not hers, but hearing her say that there was nothing here at the Estates for her anymore confirmed that she had gone and given her heart away to someone else and she was determined to either save the bloody alien that stole her from him, or to die by his side. It hurt, but he knew that if she were to ever come back to him that he would have to let her go now. He watched her shake her head, confirming that she believed that her life was out in the stars. “Okay, if that’s what you think, let’s get this thing open.” And if he was slightly condescending, she didn’t call him on it. 

Together they brainstormed how to open up the console and finally, Mickey suggested they hook his Mini up and try to pull it open. It was the best plan they had, so Mickey ran off to get the car, running into Jackie at the mouth of the alley. Mickey stopped briefly to tell Jackie what they were doing, telling her that if Rose tries all she can do and fails then she will give up and come back down to earth. Jackie agreed with that thought so as Mickey turned to go get his car and she went to head to Rose, they both jumped when the Tardis doors slammed shut. Jackie and Mickey ran full speed to the doors and started banging on them, telling Rose that she needed to open the doors, and that it wasn't funny her locking them out, but when she didn’t respond they began to panic. 

* * *

After Mickey left the Tardis to get his car, Rose started talking to her, both to convince the ship that she wanted to go back and help the Doctor, and to convince herself that she was making the right choice. “We have to go back. He shouldn’t be alone, neither should you. I need to help him, I need him to know that it will be fine, it has to be fine.” She stared at the time rotor and swallowed. “We both love him and want him to be safe. We need to make him safe, whatever it takes, I’m willing to do it. Please, help me.” Her voice dropped off in a whisper, barely there, but she knew the Tardis heard her anyway. She bowed her head, and was about to drop to her knees to beg, when the doors slammed shut.

Rose whipped around at the sound, her hair flying around her face, jaw dropping in shock at what just happened. A soft snick echoing through the silent room near her fingers had Rose slowly turning back to the console. A soft golden light peeked under the edges of the hatch where the Heart was hidden, beckoning her to look into it, compelling her to understand. She glanced back up to the time rotor and whispered a soft promise to the Tardis. “Whatever it takes, I promise, we will make him safe. I’ll take the consequences, I will die for him if I need to, just let me save him.” A hum and flicker of lights answered her, comforted her that this really was the best way to get back, so Rose took a deep breath and stared into the Heart of the Tardis.

Once the Vortex was absorbed, and Bad Wolf created, they immediately dematerialized, heading back to the Game Station and back to the Doctor. The part of Bad Wolf that was Rose was focusing on what was needed to save the Doctor, while the Tardis part was focused on starting all the changes that she saw Rose would need in the future. All of it was currently simple, and would be locked away when the Vortex was removed, but once Bad Wolf was made, she simply could not be unmade, and the challenge that would be set up after would be the hardest. Opening up the telepathic centre of Rose’s brain was the only way to start the process, putting the girl on track to save the multiverse again and again. Once this was done, Rose Tyler would be able to communicate better with the Tardis, still not perfectly, not yet, but better than just listening to a hum and watching flashing lights.

They landed and Bad Wolf stepped up to the doors, throwing them open, golden light streaming out around her.

The Doctor fell to his knees, joy and despair warring on his face as he looked at the girl who was as much his salvation as his destruction, his beautiful pink and yellow human, his very own angel. “What’ve you done?”

Rose’s brown eyes were gold with power as she replied, an odd duality to her voice. “I looked into the Tardis, and the Tardis looked into me.”

“You looked into the Time Vortex. Rose, no one’s meant to see that.” Fear tinged his voice now as he realised the magnitude of what she and the Tardis had done. 

“This is the Abomination!” The Emperor was frantic, wanting every hope for the Doctor to be exterminated. The Daleks obeyed the command and shouted their desire for death. Cries of “Exterminate,” echo around them and a beam fires at Rose.

Without flinching, however, Rose just raised her hand and stopped the beam before sending it flying back into the ray gun it came from. “I am the Bad Wolf. I create myself. I take the words, I scatter them in time and space. A message to lead myself here.” She looks at a sign and watches as the words fly away.

“Rose,” the Doctor slowly gets to his feet and starts to approach her. “You’ve got to stop this. You’ve got to stop this now. You’ve got the entire Vortex running through your head. You’re going to burn.”

Her eyes snap to his sharply before she whispers, “I want you safe. My Doctor.” Rose looks back to the screen where the Emperor is watching, “Protected from the false god.”

“You cannot hurt me. I am immortal.”

She snorts softly, “You are tiny. I can see the whole of time and space. Every single atom of your existence, and I divide them. Everything must come to dust. All things. Everything dies. The Time War ends.” There is a note of finality in the ethereal voice, an odd touch of anger at the mention of the War.

The Emperor shouted out his denials but the universe didn’t care enough to listen before he disappeared in a wave of golden light. 

“Rose, you’ve done it. Now stop. Just let go.” The Doctor was aware he was pleading but he couldn’t bring himself to care, not when she was burning. 

“How can I let go of this? I bring life.”

"But this is wrong! You can’t control life and death.”

“But I can. The sun and the moon, the day and the night. But why do they hurt?” She could see it all, everything that was controlled by time and it’s movement. It was hers to command. The glow of timelines echoed through her head and she felt her mind being directed to view one particular one that showed her differently, but she couldn’t tell what it meant.

“The power’s going to kill you and it’s my fault,” his throat was tight with tears. She needed to let this power go or he would lose her forever. He was running out of time. 

“I can see everything. All that is, all that was, all that ever could be.” 

Even with the strange dual nature to her voice, he could still hear the awe in her voice. Whatever she was seeing must have been wonderful. “That’s what I see. All the time. And doesn’t it drive you mad?” He gave her a sad smile as she clutched her temple.

“My head. It’s killing me,” she whimpered in pain and, for the first time since taking the power of the Vortex, Rose felt afraid. 

The Doctor opened his arms and tugged her in close, his arms around her waist holding her steady. “Come here, I think you need a Doctor.” If there was one dying wish he had, it was to kiss her, his beautiful saviour, just once. He would have liked it more if he had the courage to kiss her before this, but now all he could hope for was that she liked the next him to come along, and not run screaming for the hills. The Doctor dropped his head down to reach her, she was so tiny, yet she still always fit perfectly in his arms, and he kissed her. 

It was a chaste kiss, one more of love and goodbyes than reunions, but it served its purpose of fulfilling his dying wish and removing the Vortex from her. When Rose fainted in his arms, her body exhausted from the energy she sustained, he released the power back to the Tardis where it belonged, before he swung her up into his arms to set her on the jump seat and flipped the dematerialization lever to send them into the Vortex while he regenerated.

* * *

Rose sat up with a small groan, and he wanted nothing else but to gather her back into his arms and never let her go, and when her brow knit together in confusion over what happened, he had to grip the edge of the console to stop himself from going over to smooth it out and massage away her tension. Well, that dying wish apparently did more to his emotional shields than anything prior to had ever done, it was slightly terrifying. The Doctor knew that she was his everything, had known for a while, but he had been able to somewhat easily maintain proper distance, but ever since kissing her, all he could think about was doing it again and again. Hopefully, he would be able to in his next body, so he tried to distract them with talk of Barcelona, and dogs with no noses.

Rose couldn’t remember what happened, and with the way the Doctor was going on it was almost like he wasn’t going to see her again. “Doctor, what’s going on? Are you leaving me?” Her voice was small and scared as she watched him move around the console.

“Not in the way you’re thinking, Rose.” He moved to stand as close as he dared, but he knew with the extra Vortex energy that it wasn’t going to be a pretty regeneration, and he didn’t want her to get hurt if the room decided to explode as well. He did calm down a bit, hoping to both give himself some more time and to lessen the damage than if he were manic. “Rose, Time Lords have a trick to cheat death in a way. But it means that nearly everything changes.”

“What do you mean, changes?”

“What we look like, some little things that we like, clothes and food are usually the big ones, some personality quirks. The big things, however, stay the same. Our affections for people stay the same, and I told you once before, I would always love to have you with me, but I could wind up with two heads, or no head,” he pointed a finger at her with a smirk, “and don’t say that’s an improvement, Rose Tyler.” 

She gave a small grin before she sobered up again. “It sounds like you’re dying and saying goodbye, though.”

The Doctor sighed and rubbed a hand down his face. “I am. Like I said, it’s a way to cheat death, but this body still dies. All my cells die and I change into someone new.” He watched as she stood up in front of him and grabbed his hand. He tried to pull away but she held firm. “Rose, you really should let go. I don’t want you to get hurt.” He tugged his hand again but she still held fast to his hand. “Please, Rose,” his voice was soft and tired, and his eyes looked into her impossibly wide brown eyes so full of sadness.

Knowing that he wanted her to let go, and somehow knowing that they were running out of time, she gave a small sob and wrapped her arms around his neck. “You promise that you’ll still want me?” she asked in his ear, her lips brushing up against his quickening double pulse.

He slipped his arms around her waist to lift her off her feet. “Oh, I promise, Rose Tyler, I promise.” His arms tightened reflexively as his body spasmed in pain. “Alright, Rose, it’s time to let me go.” He placed her back on the floor and dropped a soft kiss to the corner of her mouth. “I need you to stand over by the wall where you’ll be safe, please. I promise, I’ll be alright and I will always want you with me.” They gave each other one last tight hug before he moved to an open area of the room and she went over to the wall.

“I will miss you, Doctor.”

“We were fantastic, Rose, but I’ll still be right here.” Finally, the pain got to be too much and he threw his head back, gold regeneration energy flowing from him like an explosion. It was quick, though it wasn’t quiet, the Doctor let out a single bellow of pain, before the light faded and the lindos energy dissipated and he stumbled slightly. “Hello. Okay. Ooh, new teeth. That’s weird. So, where were we?” He turned to face Rose. “You alright? Nothing hurt or feeling weird?” 

She gaped at him a bit, “Yeah, ‘m alright. Can I come over there?”

He gave her a small, affectionate smile. “Course you can. C’mere.” He opened his arms and she walked slowly into them. “Sorry I scared you, and I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about regeneration sooner. It’s not something I typically will talk about until it becomes necessary, not something Time Lords talk about in general.” 

She wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him. “I’m just glad that you’re alright. We can deal with the rest of the alien things that I’m not used to later, yeah?”

Unable to resist the temptation, the Doctor dropped a soft kiss to the top of her head. “Yes, definitely, we will -” He groaned in pain and doubled over clutching his stomach.

“Doctor, what’s happening? What’s wrong?” Rose started to panic a bit at seeing him in pain when a puff of gold came out of his mouth.

“Oh,” he said softly, watching as the gold shimmered in the air before it disappeared. “The regeneration is going a bit wrong.” He looked up at her, “We’ll be alright, but I don’t know what’s going to happen, I’m sorry.” And with that he straightened up and started manically flying the Tardis, pushing her past her limits, rambling on about Christmas presents for Jackie and crashing.

Rose was thrown to the floor and watched as this new Doctor ran outside like a maniac after he crashed the Tardis. She looked at the time rotor and asked the Tardis if she was alright. The ship gave a sort of pained groan in response before darkening the lights. “Alright, girl, I’ll let you rest. I’ll try and take care of him the best I can,” and she walked out the doors of the ship, not knowing that there was a new, deeper connection with her.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the start of a longer story that is more of a compilation of various head canons and fix-its within the Doctor Who universe, starting with the end of season 1 and Parting of the Ways. I always found it odd that the Doctor's personality was the first thing to shift (before the lindos energy exploded) and I figured that if the 9th Doctor was actually more in control, that he would have been able to explain a little bit better the regeneration to come. There will be a lot of healing for both of them, some growing up to do, both individually and together as friends and partners, and then hopefully as something more. Whether that happens before Doomsday or after remains to be seen.


End file.
